An open letter to the public, and to officials of the city of Napa, the county of Napa, and the State of California:We’re re-opening our art gallery in downtown Napa not later than 11 a.m., Monday, May 4th. Appropriate and adequate social-distancing protocol will be in place and observed. City, county, and state officials are being notified, with encouragement to adjust any policies and plans accordingly.
Mossoff: Google v. Oracle and the Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property Law
In a webinar panel for The Committee for Justice, Adam Mossoff, Chair, Forum for Intellectual Property and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, along with Seth L. Cooper, Randolph May, and Curt Levey, discusses the impact of the upcoming SCOTUS ruling in Google v. Oracle.Since World Intellectual Property Day is on April 26, it is a timely occasion for recognizing the vital role of copyright protections in encouraging innovation in the Digital Age. The strong protection of intellectual property in the Constitution and the Copyright Act has helped to make the U.S. the world's most prosperous society, and intellectual property protection of new technologies is particularly vital.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the copyrightability of software in what will be the biggest copyright case in several decades. The Court’s ruling in Google v. Oracle is expected to set the standard for how thoroughly computer code is protected by copyright. In this virtual panel, legal experts weigh in on the case and share their views on the constitutional foundations of intellectual property rights and current issues in copyright law.
The Failure of The COVID-19 Experts
Victor David Hanson makes some important observations in "The War between Experience and Credentials" (5 May 2020, National Review):One of the most depressing aspects of the coronavirus epidemic has been the failure of the credentialed class — the alphabetic transnational and federal health organizations, the university modelers, the professional associations, and their media enablers. Their collective lapse was largely due to hubris and the assumption that titles and credentials meant they had no need to accept input and criticism from those far more engaged in the physical world — they saw no need to say, “At this time, I confess we are as confused as you are.”In sum, the ER doctors, the nurses, and the public in general all eagerly welcomed the research of the experts. But the reverse — in which experts would listen to those with firsthand experience — was not true.The asymmetrical result is that we all have paid a terrible price in misjudging the perfidy of China; the rot within the World Health Organization; the origins, transmission, infectiousness, and lethality of the virus; and the most effective, cost-to-benefit response to the epidemic in terms of saving lives lost to the infection versus the likely even more lives lost through the response.Truly a must-read.
Cuomo: The Recipient of Charity that Keeps on Taking
From "Andrew Cuomo: Healthcare workers who volunteered to help New York with pandemic must pay state income taxes", 6 May 2020, Washington Examiner:
Healthcare workers who traveled to New York to help patients during the coronavirus pandemic may not have realized they were also going to be assisting the state dig itself out of a financial hole. [...] "Ken Isaacs, the vice president of Samaritan's Purse, a nonprofit organization that set up a temporary hospital in Central Park to help with the pandemic, told PIX 11 he was shocked to learn that workers who volunteered to come to the state would have to pay the state's income tax."Thus, a nurse from Texas (which has no state income taxes), who volunteers to work in New York, will have to file paperwork, and pay taxes for money she is paid in Texas.
Alex Epstein on Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans
Alex Epstein has two videos analyzing Michael Moore's documentary, Planet of the Humans: "The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets (Mostly) Right."- Green energy is a high-impact industrial process
- Green energy has many undesirable environmental impacts
- Green energy is hugely dependent on fossil fuels
- "100% renewable" is energy accounting fraud
- Leading green energy advocates are a terrifying combination of ignorant and dishonest
- It evades how bad the “natural” planet was for human life.
- It evades how good today’s humanized planet is for human life.
- It evades our ability to create new value and grow indefinitely.
- It evades our ability to produce more value with fewer side effects (e.g., nuclear).
- It evaluates the state of the planet by an anti-human standard (unchanged nature), not a pro-human standard (human flourishing).
Civil Disobedience: Heroic California Napa Art Gallery Owners Re-Opening, Defying County Closure Order
"We’ve risked everything; we’ve worked too hard and fought too long to bring our business to life, to keep it alive, and to grow it over the past 24 years to sit passively and watch it die for the unwillingness of some in the community to permit others to live and work on their own terms, to accept and deal with any marginal risk at their own judgment and discretion." -- Quent and Linda Cordair, Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery
As of next Monday, our gallery’s doors will have been closed, by county and state order, for six weeks and three days. Over that span, the county of Napa, population 137,744 at last count, has recorded two deaths attributable to the COVID-19 virus, both from over three weeks ago, with 60 confirmed cases in the county total, of which 26 have recovered, by the most recent county report.As of last Monday, according to the Register, there were three COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county, including the one in intensive careWe’ve been averaging fewer than two new cases reported daily since the first two were reported on 3/22. There were no new cases reported in the county this past Thursday.Testing for the virus is now available. Our hospitals — Kaiser, the Queen, Adventist Health — are all fine. As of today, there is no extant emergency in Napa County, no evidence of an imminent crisis, no evidence of an impending situation that wouldn’t be well manageable with available resources. It’s past time to start re-opening the local economy, with care, sensible precautions, continued and increased testing, and attentive monitoring.For those for whom art is essential, the experience of enjoying the paintings and sculpture in our 3,000-square-foot space — a limited number of guests at a time, observing our no-touching policy — will be as safe or safer than venturing to Home Depot, Target, Walmart, the supermarket, the mini-mart, the liquor store, the gas station, the dog park, or even the restaurant for picking up take-out.We have 30 artists and their families relying on us for support. We have employees to employ. We have bills to pay. We’ve risked everything; we’ve worked too hard and fought too long to bring our business to life, to keep it alive, and to grow it over the past 24 years to sit passively and watch it die for the unwillingness of some in the community to permit others to live and work on their own terms, to accept and deal with any marginal risk at their own judgment and discretion.We welcome other Napa business-owners willing to join us in re-opening next Monday, if and as they are able and deem proper -- but we’ll open alone if necessary.Public officials: know that we’re prepared to risk fines, arrest, or jail. We’re pursuing resources for any necessary legal challenge, up to the Supreme Court if necessary. Our constitution and system of government was created and established to secure the right of each and every individual in these United States to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.There can be no life without work; there can be no work without liberty; and, with so many others, we’re increasingly unhappy being unable to work and live for lack of liberty. The present situation is untenable, unacceptable, unjustifiable. It’s unhealthy and unsustainable. Not dying is not living.We’re going back to work. We hope to see you in the gallery soonest, hopefully to enjoy the art. If not, know that we’re prepared to defend our right to live, work, and interact freely, and that we will indeed defend our right to do so, if and as necessary.Let’s not make it necessary. Please join us in working our way back to living well and fully — living mindfully, sensibly, healthfully, and productively — while respecting every individual’s right to work and to sustain their own life and well-being as they may.We have an extraordinarily challenging road ahead. Let’s get Napa back to being Napa, with hope and optimism that it isn’t already too late to do so. Every day and every hour counts. We must get back to work, back to living, as well and as quickly as possible, while continuing to observe reasonable precautionary measures. It’s time.Quent and Linda Cordair Quent Cordair Fine Art| NapaFirst posted online at the Napa Valley Register, 27 April 2020.